The edge of medicine

An account of high-tech advances that may or may not revolutionize medical care. Hanson, director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the University of Pennsylvania, begins with a profile of his pioneering work as a "doc-in-the-box," where he and his team sit before monitors, alarms and audio-video links to oversee ICU patients in hospitals across a wide area. Using cameras that zoom in on trouble spots, they can instantly contact the appropriate personnel. The practice may seem dehumanizing, but it dramatically reduces complications and makes efficient use of the increasingly scarce supply of ICU specialists. American radiologists dislike night work, so computers now send X-rays across the world where wide-awake doctors immediately send back their reading. Experimental computers read brain waves to guide wheelchairs and artificial limbs but also send signals to the brain to produce vision and hearing. Today's devices work crudely, notes the author, but progress is inevitable.